A media market (also known as a broadcast market, media region, or television market area (TMA)) is a geographic region where consumers receive the same (or substantially similar) television and media offerings. In the United States, for example, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) defines TMAs and uses them to regulate broadcast, cable and satellite transmissions and to delineate local television offerings.
Because media offerings are typically delineated by geographic boundaries, consumers' choice of what media content they can access, as well as how and when to access their media content, have been limited. Over the years, new technologies have given consumers greater control over when and where they can enjoy television programming and other forms of media content. In the 1970's, videocassette recorders (VCRs) were introduced into the mass consumer market. VCRs, and now digital video recorders (DVRs), allow consumers to watch television programs whenever they want, a concept sometimes referred to as time-shifting. With the development of the Internet and more recent advances in video compression and mobile technologies have come the ability to access, from any place in the world accessible to the Internet, the television programs and other media content that consumers receive in one local media market, a concept referred to as place-shifting.
FIG. 1 illustrates one example of place-shifting technology that is currently available to consumers, the Slingbox® (available from Sling Media). As shown in FIG. 1, a cable set-top box 1, which is typically provided by a local cable service provider, is connected to a second set-top box 2, the Slingbox®. Both devices are housed together in one location 5, within the geographic media market serviced by the local cable service provider. A video signal 10 from the cable box 1 is directed to the Slingbox® 2, which transcodes the video signal 10 into MPEG 11 and sends the MPEG signal 11 over the Internet 20 to a remote computer 3. The consumer is thus able to watch television programs available at one location 5 from any location where the remote computer can access the Internet.
One of the disadvantages to existing place-shifting technologies, such as Slingbox®, is that the consumer is required to maintain at least two separate devices, the cable set-top box and the Slingbox®. Moreover, the consumer must also house both devices at a physical location within the particular media market serviced by the local cable service provider. Thus, the consumer must either maintain a residence or physical address within that media market; impose on someone who has a physical address in that media market; or pay a hosting service to physically house and maintain the devices within that media market. If the consumer would like to subscribe to media content from more than one media market, then that consumer would have to maintain a physical presence in each of those media markets and at least two separate devices in each of those media markets.